By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: September 29, 2011

MYITSONE, Myanmar -- The massive dam under construction in this remote corner of Myanmar is prompting a litany of concerns that are common to such projects: about the risks of tampering with nature, about damage to wildlife, about the displacement of
villagers.

But for many people in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the fears surrounding the Myitsone dam go much deeper. It will be the first dam across the Irrawaddy River, the iconic, even mythic waterway that has given life to centuries of Burmese civilization.

Passions are high. A government minister broke down in tears at a news conference last month when asked about the dam. High-ranking officials are said to be sharply divided over the wisdom of the project.

And in an authoritarian country that has begun to experiment with looser controls on the news media, the issue has raised the prospect of something exceedingly unusual: public outrage might force the government to reconsider its plans.

The dam, still several years from completion, will flood an area four times the size of Manhattan.

Officials who support the project say it will be an invaluable source of electricity and cash, a milestone in Myanmar's development. Critics say it will cause irreparable damage to the Irrawaddy, the lifeline of millions of Burmese downstream.

''The people are demanding to stop the project,'' said U Ludu Sein Win, a dissident writer who is one of the most outspoken critics.

''If the righteous demands of the people are ignored and they continue the dam project,'' he wrote in Weekly Eleven, a popular Yangon-based newspaper, ''the people will defend the Irrawaddy with whatever means possible.''

Such fierce criticism of a government project in the domestic media, unheard of just months ago, reflects both the passions surrounding the dam and the easing of some restrictions on expression by Myanmar's new, at least nominally civilian government,
which took office in March after decades of overt military dictatorship.

The criticism has been allowed to spread through Facebook, blogs and even local newspapers, suggesting that the government itself may be divided on the issue. Last month the country's most famous dissident, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has otherwise been cautious in her criticisms of the government since her release from house arrest last November, wrote an open letter calling for the project to be reassessed.

The dam, which is being built and financed by a Chinese company, has also become a lightning rod for criticism about China's power and influence in Myanmar.

Here at the dam site, Chinese workers in orange hard hats have been tunneling, blasting and shoring up riverbanks.

The site is a couple of miles downstream from what is considered the ''birthplace'' of the Irrawaddy -- the confluence of two smaller rivers -- a place that has mystical value for the Kachin ethnic group that populates the hills of
northern Myanmar. (The Kachin have a substantial army that has battled government troops in recent months, underscoring the instability in the area.)

Critics of the dam say they are angry that such an important decision was made without public consultation.

They also resent the role played by China, which plans to import 90 percent of the electricity the project generates, under financial conditions that have not been fully explained to the public.

''China has colonized Burma without shooting a gun and has sucked the life of the people of Burma with the help of the Burmese regime and its cronies,'' wrote U Aung Din, a former democracy advocate now in exile in the United States.
''Now, they are killing the Irrawaddy River as well.''

In April, four small blasts were reported at the camp where Chinese workers have their sleeping quarters. No one was seriously hurt.

But perhaps the greatest concern is that the dam will further degrade a river that has played such a crucial role in Burmese history.

The Irrawaddy draws on glacial waters from the eastern extremities of the Himalayas. As it travels south it carries nutrients into Myanmar's arid central region and ultimately fans out in the Irrawaddy Delta, an area of rice paddies so fertile that
it once fed large parts of the British empire in Asia. Like the Mekong or the Mississippi, the river carries enormous symbolism.

''It is the most significant geographical feature of our country,'' Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi wrote in her letter. The Irrawaddy, she wrote, is ''the grand natural highway, a prolific source of food, the home of varied water
flora and fauna, the supporter of traditional modes of life, the muse that has inspired countless works of prose and poetry.''

Unaccustomed to such a barrage of criticism, the government is on the defensive. The information minister, U Kyaw Hsan, wept when questioned about the project at a news conference in August.

''We love the Irrawaddy,'' said Mr. Kyaw Hsan, who is a retired brigadier general. ''We will protect the Irrawaddy just like other citizens would.''

The government official responsible for the dam, U Zaw Min, was adamant at a meeting this month that it would be completed. But his staunch defense only stoked public tensions.

China Power Investment, a state-run Chinese company, signed a deal in 2007 with the Burmese government to build seven dams in northern Myanmar, including the one at Myitsone.

The company hired scientists from China and Myanmar to assess the dam's environmental effects. Their report, delivered in 2009, seemed to question the dam's very premise.

''If Myanmar and Chinese sides were really concerned about environmental issues and aimed at sustainable development of the country there is no need for such a big dam,'' the report said.

The report suggests constructing two smaller dams farther upstream instead. It warns that the Myitsone site is ''less than 100 kilometers from Myanmar's earthquake-prone Sagaing fault line,'' a distance of about 60 miles.

It also predicts ''substantial losses'' in fish populations downstream, and says that more time is needed to understand how wildlife in the area will be affected.

The report also recommends that more research be done on the potential effects on other inhabitants of the region: people. Thousands of villagers have already been resettled from their rice paddies and fishing villages into prefabricated homes. They were
given, among other compensation, 21-inch television sets.

''We can't make a living in our new place,'' Aung San Myint, a father of three who now mines the riverbanks for flecks of gold, told a reporter. ''There's nothing for us there.''

PHOTO: Villagers panning for gold flakes along the Irrawaddy River near the site of a future dam. (PHOTOGRAPH BY THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)
MAP: Critics fear the dam will irreparably damage the river.